


Can’t Beat the Bright Out of Me

by used_songs



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Science Bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 08:18:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11459661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/used_songs/pseuds/used_songs
Summary: For Science Bros Week 2017. The prompt was: light.





	Can’t Beat the Bright Out of Me

“I still don’t feel great looking up at the night sky,” Tony said quietly, his voice low in the growing dusk and his hands gripping the arms of the wooden chair. Above them, the ceiling of the world was quickly turning dark, stars spattered in a hazy belt across the sky.

Bruce glanced over, panic settling over him like a heavy blanket. “I’m sorry! We can go back in.” The problem was, he didn’t know. He had walked away, stayed away, and there was a lot of unsure ground here now.

“No, it’s OK. I need to be able to take it back, reclaim it. At least, that’s what my therapist says.” His tone was light, but his expression was closed off, almost angry. There was tension in his shoulders and arms.

This was the first time Tony had offered anything about his therapy sessions, so Bruce casually asked, “Is that going well? Therapy?”

Tony shrugged. “It’s really pretty awful. You know, vomiting out feelings twice a week. But it helps. I think.” He leaned back in his chair and tipped his chin up, his eyes closed. “Yeah. It helps. Six weeks ago I wouldn’t have even been out here. A month ago I would’ve made an asshole remark and gone inside to get drunk.” He smiled and opened his eyes. “So there’s that. The sky hasn’t changed, so I guess I’m getting better.”

Bruce looked up at the starlight as well. “When I was traveling, I spent a lot of time in places with very little light pollution. One thing I could always rely upon was the night sky; it only changed with the seasons and the hemispheres. It’s been weird getting used to the balance of bright and dark here again, although I do like the low glare fixtures you’ve used at the Compound.” He turned his head to look across the lawn at the marks left by his arrival via the Bifrost. “And of course Asgard is a whole other story.”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it? Everyone has a different story, and we aren’t all working in tandem.” Tony sighed. “What’s Asgard like?”

“Different stars. Some places where it’s more like the Northern Lights, or where it literally never gets dark. It’s …” he struggled for an adequate description, the sensory details of his time away already starting to fade a little like a dream. “It’s just different.” A breeze stirred distant tree branches and ruffled the grass. “Light isn’t always what we think it is. The physics there is so different that I’m starting to think we are really living in a simulation.” He chuckled quietly. “How’s that for deep thoughts?”

“You’ve been strutting more since you got back.” Bruce glanced over and saw that Tony had closed his eyes again, his lashes dark against his shadowed cheeks. “What happened to you?” Bruce watched as he ran a forefinger along the edge of the armrest.

“I came to an agreement with the Other Guy when I was on Asgard,” Bruce answered. “And maybe … maybe you were a little right about him not being a monster.”

Tony gave a startled laugh. “A little right?”

Bruce sighed in mock irritation. “You were right.” He smiled. “So … strutting.”

“Ha! I was right.” Tony opened his eyes again and looked up at the stars. After a long pause he said gruffly. “I didn’t think you’d be back, but Rhodey said you would turn up again.” His profile was deeply shadowed and Bruce couldn’t make out his expression.

“I’m sorry I ran off,” he said, knowing that if time ran backwards and they lived through it once more he would do the same thing again. It was always better not to be too attached.

“Eh, it was something you had to do. I am learning not to hold grudges. Turns out I am capable of being wrong about people.” Tony leaned forward, palms flat against the armrests, and then stood up abruptly, taking three steps forward until he was at the brink of the concrete patio. His voice was soft and Bruce barely caught the words. “Apparently it wasn’t an easy lesson for me to learn, but I have finally learned it.”

Bruce stood up as well and asked hesitantly, “Tony?” Tony waved a hand absently to his side and then stepped down onto the grass. He made his way with measured steps toward the center of the lawn and then stopped and looked up. A few paces behind him, Bruce did the same. “What do you see, Tony?” he asked softly, scanning the sky.

“The past. All of this old light.” Tony sketched an absent rectangle in the air with one hand until Bruce moved forward and seized it, turning his hand so he could fit their palms together. “The future. Whatever’s out there … coming for us.”

Bruce looked up. “Yeah.” He squeezed Tony’s hand lightly. “If I were 20 years younger I’d suggest we lie down out here and stargaze and philosophize about how that starlight is a composed of particles and waves and quantum theory and how none of this is really real.”

Tony grinned, his face still turned toward the Milky Way. “And we could smoke some weed and get giggly? I knew that was your secret!”

Bruce shrugged, “Hey, it helps me keep my cool.” He bumped his shoulder against the other man’s.

“Yeah.” Tony finally looked at Bruce with a smile, his face lit by the celestial show above. “But honestly, it kind of makes me feel better that it’s both and neither … and that it’s all about the math.”

Bruce nodded, releasing Tony’s hand and gently slinging his arm over his shoulders and pulling him close, aware of bone and muscle and the movement of blood. “It’s easier when it’s all about the math.”


End file.
